Homeless People

The dead bodies of two homeless people were discovered in separate Costa Mesa locations Tuesday, and city workers said they were taking emergency measures to shield those most at risk from the cold. There were no unusual circumstances surrounding the deaths, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Bryan Glass said. Though police and the coroner's office did not release the victims' names, service providers who work with the homeless identified them as Robert Collins and Rita Stehnach, both believed to be in their 50s. It was unclear whether cold temperatures, which dipped to 43 degrees Monday night, had something to do with the deaths.

He stood at the gate to his United Airlines flight, ready to head home to Chicago after two years on the streets of Costa Mesa. Officer Julian Trevino, a Costa Mesa cop, had helped Jose Zamora get an identification card and contact his sister so she could buy her brother a ticket home. Trevino stood by as the 50-year-old homeless man prepared to board a last-minute, $485 flight out of John Wayne Airport on a recent Friday. Zamora was leaving Costa Mesa to rejoin his family and see his granddaughter for the first time.

Costa Mesa is home to more than 100 chronically homeless people, according to preliminary results of a citywide count done during the past two days by Vanguard University and the nonprofit group Mercy House. About 75 volunteers, mostly students from Vanguard, including the university’s baseball team, headed out in cars, on foot and on bicycle to search for homeless people living in riverbeds and under freeway overpasses. “I hope we can use some of the information we collect to benefit them,” said Vanguard baseball player Eric Krzysiak.

Looking to cut down on homeless services in Costa Mesa, Mayor Eric Bever asked the city CEO to investigate some of the city's most prominent charities. Bever singled out Share Our Selves and Someone Cares Soup Kitchen , two nonprofits that give food and medical care to the poor and homeless. Costa Mesa's homeless population has been a stubborn issue for city officials. Residents consistently complain that individuals overtake public facilities like Lions Park and the Costa Mesa Donald Dungan Library.

A pilot program that takes homeless people from Costa Mesa to Santa Ana for overnight shelter has been extended. Until at least Wednesday, users of the cold-weather transportation service can meet at 4 p.m. in the Lighthouse Church parking lot, 1885 Anaheim St., and take a bus to the Armory in Santa Ana. Once there, they will receive clothing, food, a shower, a place to sleep and other services. They will then leave the Armory by 6 a.m. the next day and go back to the Lighthouse Church.

Calling Laguna Beach worthy of “the Scrooge award” and alleging that the city “has declared war on the homeless,” the ACLU of Southern California has launched what representatives say is a historic legal challenge to city enforcement of anti-sleeping laws and other measures against homeless disabled people. The ACLU — joined by Constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky of the new UCI School of Law — filed the lawsuit Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on behalf of five homeless disabled people who allege mistreatment from Laguna Beach police: Mark Sipprelle, Helen Ayres, Felipe Ruiz, Robert Carmichael and Paul Ishak — all of whom are identified as disabled homeless residents of Laguna Beach.

The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday evening voted unanimously in favor of a new ordinance that, if adopted at the next public meeting, would "forbid rich and poor alike" to park a bicycle, except in a bike rack, on a public or semipublic (whatever that means) right of way or to tether it to a pole, hydrant, etc. Any bicycle so found would be impounded, along with any personal belongings attached to it, and the owner would have to pay for storage in order to claim it and would be subject to a fine of $10. After 90 days, unclaimed bikes and personal belongings would be sold.

COSTA MESA - He cycled around town with an empty child trailer hitched to the back of his bike. It was around dusk near Lions Park on a recent Tuesday. Other than messy salt-and-pepper hair and ruddy skin from six years of living on the streets, there were few signs that Joseph Deutsch was homeless. His second-hand shirt and pants were largely well-kept. His solid frame didn't look like it had missed a meal. He spoke confidently, clearly and evenly, not betraying the bipolar disorder he says he suffers from.

The Daughters of the American Revolution organization has recognized five students at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Newport Beach. Eighth-graders Jonathan Walsh and Samantha Luehrs, and seventh-graders Scott Matthews and Alexis Meruelo received citizenship awards; fifth-grader Will Van Dalsem received an award for outstanding history knowledge. Twenty-seven girls and five moms from the National Charity League's ninth-grade Ticktockers Class participated in a weekend fundraiser at Bob's Old Fashioned Ice Cream at the Orange County Marketplace in Costa Mesa.

Members of Costa Mesa faith-based groups met Friday afternoon to discuss what progress the city and the Churches Consortium have made in addressing homelessness in the past two years. They also discussed goals for 2013. The Churches Consortium, an initiative to assist homeless people in Costa Mesa, emerged in March 2011 after the city created the Homeless Task Force. On Friday the group met in the same room at the Neighborhood Community Center near Lions Park where it began two years ago. Three successes enumerated by speakers accomplished by the Churches Consortium broke down to just a few words: laundry, showers and storage.

A pilot program that takes homeless people from Costa Mesa to Santa Ana for overnight shelter has been extended. Until at least Wednesday, users of the cold-weather transportation service can meet at 4 p.m. in the Lighthouse Church parking lot, 1885 Anaheim St., and take a bus to the Armory in Santa Ana. Once there, they will receive clothing, food, a shower, a place to sleep and other services. They will then leave the Armory by 6 a.m. the next day and go back to the Lighthouse Church.

The insightful letter by Tom Peterson in today's Daily Pilot ( "Mailbag: Costa Mesa homeless deserve dignity," Jan. 23) pricked my conscience and reminded me I should comment also. In my more than 23 years of association with homeless people in my work at Share Our Selves (SOS), I found our city often had trouble identifying them as fellow human beings deserving of our attention. In 1993, SOS was evicted from its location at Rea Center by the City Council, which felt SOS was a magnet drawing many undesirables, i.e. homeless, into our city.

I was shocked and saddened to learn that two homeless people died alone on a frigid night last week in Costa Mesa ("2 homeless people found dead," Jan. 16). Every person deserves dignity. Every person deserves help. It prompted me to research Costa Mesa's history on the issue of homelessness in the past few years. The Daily Pilot reported that Costa Mesa's former mayor once discussed putting the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen out of business. Another City Council member described Costa Mesa as a magnet destination for homeless persons.

Following the deaths of two homeless people, a pilot program shuttling Costa Mesa's homeless to spend nights at an emergency shelter in Santa Ana has been extended through Wednesday, service providers said. Pick-ups will take place at about 4 p.m. daily at the Lighthouse Church, 1885 Anaheim Ave., said Becks Heyhoe of the Churches Consortium, a homeless outreach program. They'll take homeless people to stay at the Armory emergency shelter run by Mercy House in Santa Ana. Then, a bus will leave Santa Ana for the Lighthouse at 6:15 a.m. Update: Organizers said the departure time from the armory in the morning is now scheduled for 6 a.m., not 6:15 a.m. After a homeless man and woman were found dead on city streets Tuesday - just after the height of the cold snap - Costa Mesa scrambled to take action.

The dead bodies of two homeless people were discovered in separate Costa Mesa locations Tuesday, and city workers said they were taking emergency measures to shield those most at risk from the cold. There were no unusual circumstances surrounding the deaths, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Bryan Glass said. Though police and the coroner's office did not release the victims' names, service providers who work with the homeless identified them as Robert Collins and Rita Stehnach, both believed to be in their 50s. It was unclear whether cold temperatures, which dipped to 43 degrees Monday night, had something to do with the deaths.

Looking to cut down on homeless services in Costa Mesa, Mayor Eric Bever asked the city CEO to investigate some of the city's most prominent charities. Bever singled out Share Our Selves and Someone Cares Soup Kitchen , two nonprofits that give food and medical care to the poor and homeless. Costa Mesa's homeless population has been a stubborn issue for city officials. Residents consistently complain that individuals overtake public facilities like Lions Park and the Costa Mesa Donald Dungan Library.

For a short while Tuesday evening, Kobe Bryant drove far away from his Newport Coast mansion and completely abandoned his opulent lifestyle. He arrived at skid row. It's a place filled with garbage and littered with human waste — but among the despair, he found hope. "You get to hear the stories, you get to see firsthand what's going on," Bryant said Wednesday at an event in Hollywood to promote his work with homeless people. While walking around downtown L.A., Bryant met one man in particular who seemed to have a deep effect on the Lakers guard.

The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday evening voted unanimously in favor of a new ordinance that, if adopted at the next public meeting, would "forbid rich and poor alike" to park a bicycle, except in a bike rack, on a public or semipublic (whatever that means) right of way or to tether it to a pole, hydrant, etc. Any bicycle so found would be impounded, along with any personal belongings attached to it, and the owner would have to pay for storage in order to claim it and would be subject to a fine of $10. After 90 days, unclaimed bikes and personal belongings would be sold.

COSTA MESA - Solving the city's homeless problem requires the cooperation of other Orange County cities and a mixture of short- and long-term solutions, the Costa Mesa Homeless Task force concluded in its final report. The challenge is for the city to determine which homeless people are from Costa Mesa and which ones were drawn here by social-service programs and parks, committee members concluded. City Council members have said they want to help Costa Mesans who have fallen on hard times but do not have the resources to help those from other cities.